King warily eyed the dilapidated path that led into the jungle.
He felt a surge of mixed emotions ; Fear, despair and hope, all competing for dominance as the word of the unknown man reverberated in his ears. 'stay on the outskirts' he had advised.
King wanted to die but the thought of entering this menacing place made him think twice, he briefly considered biting off his own tongue as well but he wasn't stupid.
Blood attracted animals and beasts.
This jungle was presumably full of numerous beasts and considering he was now in a world with magic and abilities, he shuddered to think what kind of monsters roamed it.
The thought of being devoured by a monster did not appeal to him. He racked his brain for what would be the easiest and quickest way to die in the current setting without the intervention of another life form.
He soon settled on staying rooted to this spot without moving and starving himself to death, this may not have been the quickest option but it was the easiest and safest, besides, he was used to prolonged periods without food.
.....
King remained sat on the rocky path listening to the intimidating tune of the jungle to avoid falling into depression.
This helped him reaffirm his stance on not entering.
In the distance, slightly muffled by the thick curtain of trees ( which he noticed had slight tinges of blood red and Blue) he could hear the terrifying roar and screams of beasts as well as see the occasional creature soar through the darkening sky.
His skinny frame was shaking in fear and boredom. further enhanced when he saw with his very own drooping eyes, a creature flying casually way too far up and off into the sky for him to properly discern its appearance, get snatched violently and suddenly out of the air by a undiscernible silhouette.
His eyes widened in fearful disbelief when, as if with cruel and sick timing, he heard a faint rustling off to his right.
His head whipped round so fast a horrible pain riddled his neck but was quickly forgotten with the appearance ,from behind a dark green bush, of a creature King had never expected to see here of all places.
His breathing quickened drastically and his body shook more violently as he found himself stuck in a tense staring competition with the dark black pupils of the person before him, who seemed perplexed and confused with what he was looking at.
(POV of the other person) He did not know whether this other being he saw was a brethren of the same clan or a threat, after all , his clan was wiped out. Similar to himself it was small, really small and shared the same lack of body mass and all too prominent bones, They were both filthy, sunken eyes bulging and yellow teeth but even below the dirt he could see that this brethren had pale white skin unlike its own dark brown.
This brethren also had hair which confused it, it did not have bushy and curly Black hair like his own but straight, long and purple.
Despite his incessant shaking, King sat stock still as if paralysed while the person before him eyed him.
This nerve-wracking stalemate continued for a few seconds longer before the the dark skinned boy, who was around the same age as King made up his mind and took a threatening step in King's direction, brandishing his sickeningly mouldy teeth and the sharpened sticks he held in each hand like swords.
Immediately King scrambled to his feet and dashed off towards the jungle without thinking, fear crowding his judgement as he hoped his sudden flee would allow him to get away.
He didnt know what another human was doing here, much less a black one, he hadn't come across any black people in this world yet. He wasn't racist, his mother had always taught him to treat every one the same and as a person who had spent all his lives being treated unfairly he had no heart to be racist. But these circumstances where too unusual, he wasn't going to take any risks.
Coincidentally his idea worked as the dark skin boy was left dumbfounded having taken only a single step forward. As he watched King disappear into the jungle he regretted having let an enemy and potential rival escape.
....
It had been a while since King had entered the Jungle and he had long since started regretting it. Perhaps he should've let a goblin have him for dinner because currently he could see no hope in dying safely and as a result of his own actions.
He couldn't have been in here for long and already he had encountered and just narrowly escaped six goblin monsters. They weren't too different in appearance to himself safe for the dark green skin and bald scalps. He was tired mentally and physically, his body was wrapped in a brutal blanket of pain from tripping up and walking into things as a result of running around pretty much blind in this pitch darkness,
The sky was not visible behind the towering trees which created a large veil of darkness over the area, not to mention the weirdly suffocating air which King suspected carried a miasma that was making breathing harder than walking.
Fwoot!
suddenly something sped out from the mass of bushes too fast for king to even see. much less react to , it thoroughly implanted itself firmly in his shoulder, drawing a violent spray of blood and hurling him backwards. Before he could even register the pain properly another two projectiles soared through the air, one narrowly missing his head and ripping cleanly through his ear and the other lodging precisely deep in his gut.
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH" King let out a screeching roar of pain that echoed throughout the trees.
He twisted and turned, writhing violently in pain on the floor all whilst wailing in pain and clutching his ear and gut.
Through teary eyes he looked down at his body to see that the rags he wore were soaked in crimson blood sourcing from the 30cm spike that had opened a gaping hole in his torso. His shoulder felt heavy and numb. As he helplessly wept and grovelled around he all the while thought to himself:
" This is it isn't it" he watched the blood continue to flow shamelessly and thought "Is this how easy it is to kill me? I dont even know what bloody creature did this for f*ck's sake!"
As if to answer his question a creature walked out of the bushes and upon seeing it King could immediately tell it was the culprit. It was an armadillo like creature the size of a mini cooper car from his previous world but with sharp familiar spikes adorning its hard black shell and dark blue eyes that stood out against its black scaly skin.
It walked towards its prey with a distinct swagger, proud and confident, and with its approach, all of King's hope was flushed away as he stared at his murderer, its viciously sharp teeth glistening and visible even through his teary eyes.
*sniffle**sniffle*
King's breathing was coarse and strained as his brain which was crowded with pain and exhaustion worked overtime searching for a way out. Anything. Just to survive.
Fortunately help came in the most unexpected form.
Before the armadillo monster could reach him it was suddenly swamped by a group of five ragged goblins clearly being led by the dark skinned boy from earlier.
They began barraging the Armadillo monster with an assortment of makeshift weapons ranging from clubs to sharp sticks although seemingly lacking any effect on the enemy.
Kings eyes widened in appreciation as an expression of hope flashed on his face and he wasted no time taking this opportunity to escape.
Still clutching his dismembered ear, with his free right hand he began to desperately push himself to safety at an extremely unsatisfying speed hoping against all odds that he would get away in time before the fight ended.
He was so engrossed that he failed to notice the spectacular scenes of explosions and magic that played out in front of him.
It took a long while before he was out of sight of the fight as he slumped to the floor, his weak arm no longer able to push him any further. Despite having escaped, he could tell he was still close by since he could still vividly hear the sounds of explosions and weapons clashing.
Laying there still bleeding out he looked up at the dark trees, his hand subconsciously wondering down to his pocket and tightly gipping the old stone that for some reason always remained with him as the only constant thing in his life.
The strange mans words played in his mind
"tough times only last as long as you let them"
"Only six years"
"Yeah, right" his skinny, malnourished and grimy face contorted into a nasty snarl as he mocked these foolish words.
Lost in thought, he failed to notice the silence that had once again seized the jungle.
Finaly noticing, he felt curious as to the outcome. He wanted to go check it out.
The holes in his gut, shoulder and side of his head still bled continuously, the pain was dulling his senses and his vision was already darkening. He could feel himself steadily slipping away.
"Ahh f*ck it, I'm gonna die anyway, might aswell see who won as the last treat before i go"
Following this flawed thought process and knowing fully well it would nulify his earlier efforts to escape, he grit his teeth so hard they began to bleed and pushed through the pain to once again one handedly pull himself, this time in the opposite direction.
He truly had not gone far, a few seconds of painstaking shuffling past trees and bushes and he had arrived back at the scene.
His jaw fell open and his eyes widened in disgust as he took in what lay before him.
Blood, gore, lifeless bodies and more blood adorned the clearing as the stench of iron mixed with something else assaulted his nose.
To his left lay the lifeless corpse of the armadillo monster, its shell shattered and its leathery black skin peeled and bruised with wooden sticks lodged into his flesh and his skull completely crushed as greenish-brown blood poured from gapping wounds the size of footballs.
Around it were the equally lifeless bodies of all the goblins safe for the human which found himself on the other side of the clearing seemingly having unsuccessfully attempted to escape. All their bodies where covered from head to toe in the same 30cm spikes which had impaled King all the way through their bodies. Greenish-brown blood also formed puddles around their corpses.
A truly grotesque view.
*rustle*
Kings head instinctively turned around in the direction of the sound only to see that the corpse of the boy who tried to escape was still moving, apparently still alive.
For some reason King felt something calling for him to approach the boy and despite his own fatal injuries he obeyed this 'calling'.
Arriving before the body, the boy's eyelids fluttered open and he looked weakly up at the face of the person he probably would've killed earlier, here to see it on his death bed.
Starring into the dark skinned boy's bloodshot eyes king felt an overwhelming sense of questionable gratitude and gratefulness aswell as helplessness and sadness.
Although he knew it was purely coincidental and that this very person had aimed to kill him earlier, he felt grateful to him that he would not be another beings dinner.
Probably as a result of his lives of loneliness and suffering, he felt unusually happy that someone would help him but felt ashamed that he even needed help from such a pitiful person as well as helpless since he was unable to repay it. Despite fully being aware that it had not been intentional.
He also felt he could relate to the boy, although he had no idea why he was here, he had probably been here for much longer than him, he recognised that they where both ultimately in the same boat but unlike him the boy had been fighting for survival.
Tears streaming down his face, he began desperately pulling the spikes out of the boys fragile body in a futile attempt to help him.
The boy eyed this person with visible confusion in his eyes. Was he trying to help him? Even though he had wanted to kill him earlier?
Seeing that he was getting nowhere, King collapsed on top of the boy in cries of disparity and anger as well as pain. No longer caring to be discreet and careful he wailed and wailed letting out all his pent up emotions allowing a melancholy tune of anger, pain, disparity, helplessness, fear, jealousy, suffering, agony, depression, embarrassment, hate, grief, loathing, anguish, rage, torment, and loneliness to resonate through the jungle.
This went on for minutes on end, the boy listening to this as he died could sense the negative emotions radiating from the screaming person's being. He wanted to say something but was too weak to utter a word.
Eventually after more then 20 minutes King calmed down and after pulling out the spike from his abdomen slumped beside the boy feeling relieved and empty and having resolved himself to die with the him.
It was then that the miracle happened.
As they lay there silently dying in peace, their blood formed a nasty pool around them to form a blood bath that suddenly began to glow.
Neither human new what was happening but a vague answer soon began forming in King's mind when he began to feel his life drain at an even more astonishing rate as a warm green glow enveloped the dark skinned boy beside him, his wounds beginning to close and a spark returning to his eyes while King's body mass quickly began to shrink.
The blood surrounding them was flowing steadily into the dark skinned boy as King was slowly being reduced to a husk of a skeleton. His eyes sunk even further, his bones began creaking and becoming even more defined against his dirty skin that clung to them and began to flake up and dry.
His death was being accelerated while the dark skinned boy was being healed. Despite this he wore a content smile on his face. Something was finaly going right, he didn't mind dying like this, in fact he felt it was the perfect death if it meant he saved the life of another human being.
The dark skinned boy, realising what was happening, widened his eyes in shock. Why was this person going so far for him after he had threatened his life?
"N-No!" he shouted once he had the energy to do so, he was almost fully healed now.
Despite his shouts, it was too late for him to do anything. The remaining sparks of life in King's eyes began to dim with a small smile left on his face when a low voice reverberated in their ear drums.
"Such a good soul, riddled with suffering and yet you happily let yourself die for another while smiling"
the temperature around them dropped as a mysterious spirit appeared around them in the form of a chilly gold mist.
"It is not yet your time young one, there is much yet that you have to accomplish"
and with those words, the gold mist began to flow rapidly into the husk of a body that was King which glowed an enchanting purple, Blue and gold as it swallowed the Mysterious entity as the dark skinned boy watched, dumbfounded.